A homeowner in southern Sweden got a shock when he found a drunken elk stuck in his neighbour's apple tree. The animal was apparently on the hunt for fermenting apples when she lost her balance and became trapped in the tree.

Per Johansson, from Saro near Gothenburg, found the elk making a roaring noise in the garden next door. He called the emergency services, who helped him free the boozed-up beast by sawing off branches. She spent the night recovering in the garden.

The next day she took herself off into the woods with her hangover. It is not unusual to see elk, or moose as they are known in North America, drunk in Sweden during autumn, when there are plenty of apples about.

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Woman calls in bomb threat so relatives won't fly before 9/11

Federal prosecutors have charged a Long Island woman for calling in a fake bomb threat to a Southwest Airlines flight because she didn't want her mother and brother to fly close to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The criminal complaint says airport police in Tucson, Ariz. received an anonymous call from a woman on Sept. 10 saying she overheard her boyfriend and others discussing a plot to bomb Southwest Airlines Flight 2475 that day.

Police called bomb squad officials and notified the FBI. Law enforcement took all the luggage off the plane and searched the aircraft and bags while the passengers were double-screened. Security throughout the entire airport was increased, the complaint says. The FBI's investigation led authorities to Mary Purcell, 37, in Lake Ronkonkoma, whose mother and brother were scheduled to be on the flight.She eventually admitted to an FBI special agent that she made the threat because she didn't want her loved ones flying so close to the anniversary of 9/11, according to the complaint.

Purcell has a history of deceiving authorities: a law enforcement source told NBC New York she has four felony convictions, including one for forgery. Purcell was charged Tuesday in Central Islip with a federal offense of making a false bomb threat over the phone. She was released on $200,000 bond. Coincidentally, it was her mother and brother who signed the bond -- the same family members she was allegedly trying to keep grounded in Arizona. Purcell was represented by a court-appointed attorney from the Federal Defenders. A representative of the Federal Defenders declined comment.

Employees at a KFC restaurant on South Memorial Parkway picked up a dozen dead chickens left in the restaurant's drive-thru lane this morning by an animal rights group. The Militant Vegans Against Factory Farming left the corpses in the drive-thru at the KFC at 8416 South Memorial Parkway to bring attention to "the cruel and selfish practice of eating animal flesh," the group said in a news release.

KFC did not report the incident to police, police spokesman Harry Hobbs said. He said a KFC supervisor told him that restaurant workers removed the birds and cleaned the drive-thru lane. The militant vegan group said in a statement that the birds were taken from the "dead pile" of a local chicken farm. "We honored their memory, and the memory of all animal killed in slaughterhouses, by using their deaths to confront meat eaters where their 'food' comes from: sentient creatures who have the same will to live as you and I," the group's statement said.

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Toys R Us manager paid prostitute $31,000 a week

A British judge involved in recouping money that a disgraced Toys R Us manager paid to a prostitute questioned the woman's high fees in court on Tuesday. Prosecutors are trying to reclaim nearly $6 million that jailed Paul Hopes stole from Toys R US in Britain. They argue much of the million-plus dollars call-girl Dawn Dunbar received was given to her, not earned, and could be confiscated..In an enforcement hearing, Judge Stephen John calculated the weekly average Dunbar was paid, which she admitted was 10 times the going rate. "It is £20,000 ($31,000) a week. How do you manage to evaluate your services — sex — at £20,000 a week? "How do you justify that?"

According to the Telegraph, Dunbar replied: "It wasn't me that was putting the worth on that. It was Mr. Hopes paying what he thought it was worth." The judge ruled the leftover money could be reclaimed, along with luxury cars Dunbar bought for herself, husband and father.Hopes, 59, is a former Toys R US purchasing manager and married father of two who admitted to theft and money laundering in December 2009. He was sent to prison for seven years and ordered to pay back millions he spent buying houses and cars for prostitutes. Hopes spent little of the stolen money on himself or his wife, according to UK media reports. His wife has divorced him.

On the bizarre story of the hooker, I suppose within the capitalistic system, it is not so much an issue of "the going rates" or even of "supply and demand" but one of exploitation of workers and consumers, for at least one fool is born every minute as we speak. The "sex wroker" Ms. Dunbar is taking the system for a ride, for she has understood it only too well...

Biff

2011-09-17 17:54:37

Why wouldn't he pay that much for a hooker? It wasn't his money.

Emanuel Paparella

2011-09-18 00:19:03

You got the point Mr. Biff: in a system where thievery and exploitation is rampant even prostitutes know how to work the system...